OXFORD – David Raymond arrived at Oxford Plains Speedway three seasons ago with the nickname “Crazy Dave.”

In addition to exhibiting model citizenship at his new racing home, the Scarborough man has scored himself a new moniker. Raymond now answers to “Ironman,” a reference to the fact that he campaigns a front-running car in two of the track’s top three divisions.

With a Saturday night rush to the front that was as subtle as Black Sabbath’s rock anthem by the same name, Ironman walked home with another hunk of heavy metal – a trophy symbolic of winning the biggest Limited Sportsman feature of the season. Raymond led the final 42 laps of the Steve Wilson Memorial New England Dodge Dealers 100.

An enhanced purse and lap-leader bonus money provided Raymond with a $1,120 windfall, easily the most lucrative night of his racing career.

“I sent two guys to the infield with two tires if we needed them,” Raymond said. “This win is going to help us with the tires on our Late Model car. I’m running way behind with that.”

Raymond drove around early dominator Steve Bennett Jr. on lap 59, six circuits after the lone restart of the event.

Lapped traffic provided no major obstacles for Raymond as he cruised to a two-second victory over Bennett. Tommy Ricker moved into third when Shane Green and Dana Grover got together with five laps to go. Chuck Estes ran fourth, and series point leader Carey Martin collected fifth when Jon Brill’s car failed the post-race inspection. Martin increased his series lead to 42 points over Kenny Harrison, who retired from the race early with engine problems.

In other action on a busy, crisp and fast-moving night at the Plains, Billy Childs Sr. became the first driver to clinch a track championship, wrapping up the first title of his 27-year racing career with a fourth-place finish in the Mini Stock feature. Childs owns an insurmountable 129-point margin over 2002 champion Butch Keene with two weekly races remaining.

Al Hammond of Paris captured the 78th Pro Stock win of his five-decade career, while T.J. Brackett erased a season’s worth of misfortune with a Late Model Stock score.

Bob Crocker, Rusty Gaghan and Dave Mooney also discovered the trail to feature victories.

Hammond, a three-time champion and second all-time to Mike Rowe on the list of Pro Stock feature winners, reeled in Tim Brackett with six laps to go and emerged from a frantic, four-car scramble that included Brackett, Alan Wilson and OPS newcomer Charlie Colby.

Although Andy Shaw and Jeff White tangled with five laps remaining to bring out the only yellow flag of the finale, Hammond dominated the ensuing restart and rolled to his first win of the summer.

“I knew if I didn’t make a mistake that I had enough for ’em,” said Hammond.

Wilson, Colby, Tommy Tompkins and Ricky Rolfe completed the top five, and Rolfe may have been the big winner of the night. In light of the troubles that befell Shaw and Billy Whorff, Rolfe, a Pro Stock rookie, now leads Whorff by 24 points and Shaw by 30 in the championship chase.

Just before his father led 28 laps and finished seventh in the Pro Stock dash, Brackett led wire-to-wire in the LMS encounter. It was his first top-10 finish since May 17.

“I wasn’t looking back,” Brackett said. “I just wanted to take off and hope they didn’t catch me.”

Ricky Morse edged Ron Charpentier Jr. in a distant scrap for second. Gary Drew and Corey Morgan finished fourth and fifth, just ahead of Travis Adams, who leads Morgan by 20 points in the season sweepstakes.

One year ago, Crocker was close to cementing the championship in the Big Apple Summer Series Outlaw division on Wednesday nights. With the second Strictly Stock ‘A’ triumph of his rookie campaign in weekend competition, Crocker closed to within eight points of division leader Peter Hafford.

“In the final practice, we were loose going into the corner and loose coming out,” Crocker said. “We made one adjustment, and I’m pretty happy.”

Crocker was one of the few drivers able to make progress on the outside, driving around Don Duval for the runner-up role on lap 14 and dispatching Mark Theriault two circuits later.

Theriault and Duval rounded out the trophy positions, followed by another rookie, Glenn Hall, and Hafford.

Geoff Low’s heartbreak was Gaghan’s gain in the Strictly Stock ‘B’ feature. Low led by as much a full straightaway early in the uninterrupted 20-lapper and was less than two laps away from his first win since a Figure Eight conquest in 1986 when he spun off the inside of turn one.

Gaghan inherited the top spot and held off Mike Short and Kim Tripp for his second career checkered flag.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘This is awesome!’ It’s too bad for Geoff. I never touched him,” said Gaghan. “He kind of slipped over there. He drove into the corner pretty hard.”

David Weir and Joe Turner completed the top five.

Mooney warded off a mid-race challenge from his brother, Don, and Bill Thibeault before sprinting away to his sixth career OPS victory and first since 2000.

After years of driving a Ford Pinto from his family’s multi-car stable, Dave Mooney made his third start of the summer as an injury substitute for the car’s owner, Joe Treadwell. Don Mooney and Thibeault held off Childs for second and third, respectively, with last week’s winner, Larry Melcher, in fifth.

Childs is one of eight drivers from his extended family to win an Oxford feature over the years, and he owns the bragging rights in that category. Four of Childs’ 32 victories have come this season in a Ford purchased last winter from Kevin Varney. It is the Mustang that finished second to Keene last season with Jeff Moon at the wheel.

Far and away the most consistent driver in the division this year, Childs sped to his 12th top-five finish of the season Saturday night.

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